Atmos- 
pheric 
rejlection. 
The dawn 
light. 
NATURE FOR ITS OWN SAKE 
the dawn is reflected is not hard or smooth 
like metal; it is not so compact even as the 
softest, thinnest cloud of the stratus, yet what 
beautiful light it throws off! The white light 
that hangs over a city at night when there is 
fog, caused by the glare of many lamps thrown 
back from the fog bank, is brutal and coarse by 
comparison ; and the ruddy sunset caused by 
dust and cloud is more palpable and less crys- 
talline. There is no glare or flare about the 
dawn. The light comes from a deep transpar- 
ency quivering under the rays of the sun, re- 
celving its illumination in straight shafts of 
fire, and yet reflecting it with a softness of 
glow that delights the eye by its purity and 
delicacy. 
Surely this light of dawn is the highest mani- 
festation of beauty in the universe. Colors do 
not equal it, lines and forms of cloud and earth 
are petty compared to it, shadow is its very 
antithesis. It is not wonderful that it should 
have been the inspiration of Orphic song and 
the symbol of deity in ancient religions. To- 
day it seems a sign of preternatural glory even 
to modern materialism. Not the sun itself, 
but its light (symbolic of the purity and Iumi- 
nosity of Deity) bowed the head of Zoroaster. 
